Gottino - Review

Intro
Gottino - Recommended
52 Greenwich Ave, New York 10011
bet. Charles & Perry St
Phone: 212-633-2590

Did the date night with the wife and decided on Gottino - a wine bar that does some very tasty snacks. The owner of Gottino is Sara Jenkins - also owner of the killer Porchetta. She was there (not cooking, but chilling), which was cool and would also make Colamecco proud...chef's that surprise, surprise actually are at their own restaurants. Great times and some great wine there. If it weren't for the price/quantity ratio, I would give this a highly recommended rating. Overall, I give the restaurant an 80/100

My Menu (all dishes served with tuscan bread)
1) Frittata Porri *
2) Bottarga e Uova **
3) Ricotta Tartufato
4) Chicken Liver Pate **
5) Goat Cheese with Quince **
6) Spicy Sausage Spread *
7) Affogato *

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) A tasty frittata made with potatoes and leeks. A bit on the cold side, but decent nonetheless.
2) A great dish and rivaling the best of the night. Eggs made using the espresso steamer which yields an uber creamy egg. Topped with salty bottarga (kinda like bonito) made this a salty, creamy masterpiece.
3) A nice creamy ricotta. However, the key to this dish was the truffle oil which would have paired perfectly. But sadly, there was absolutely no truffle flavor.
4) If it were not for Barney Greengrass, this would have been an absolutely big time what the f moment. Rich, sweet, and creamy...quite honestly the perfect chicken liver pate. So good, I want to go back to Barney Greengrass to see if that still stays tops on my list. Make sure to not be dainty with a thin spread. You need to use a dude size spread to really enjoy it properly.
5) A nice, rich, creamy goat cheese paired perfectly with the quince paste. Went great with the tasty wine I had - a fruity red called Vernaccia Nera.
6) A spicy sausage spread that sadly didn't have that much sausage flavor - still fun though. I was trying to figure out what the spice component was, maybe pepperoncini? But, midway I finally figured out that it was probably the smoky chipotle pepper. Interesting non-Italian touch.
7) Creamy gelato from the famed Capogiro Gelato from Philly. Sweet cream gelato with great texture topped with espresso. Fun stuff.

Overall Restaurant Experience (80/100)

• Food 8.2/10 – Totally my strike zone here. Nothing was a what the f moment, but everything was fun to eat and great with the wine. All the wines we had were pretty fun. The best was Brachetto d'Acqui - a subtely sweet, red wine with effervescence.
  
• Service 8.5/10 – Waiters were very helpful recommending dishes and wine together. All waiters also allowed you to try before you buy which was pretty cool. Food took a while to come out, but wine and good conversations always makes you forget that stuff.
  
• Atmosphere 8.0/10 – A tiny wine bar, that surprisingly looks tinier than it actually is. A long marble bar and a setup similar to Tia Pol. However, if you sit at the bar (a must), there's a standing area behind the bar and still enough room for people to pass by without bumping into you. Place takes no reservations and there are only 3-4 tables. We got there at 7pm on a Saturday and were seated within 15 minutes...people seemed to take off after one hour.
  
• Price 7.4/10 – $120 for 2, which is very pricey but we had 4 glasses of wine on top of all the food we had. Probably better if you went with more people since you can share more items. The glasses and dishes were around $10, but the portions are small for their price - we weren't 100% full after this feast either.
  

Closing Comments
Definitely a go to place for a glass or 4 of wine and 100% need to go back with the dudes and eat the entire menu.